Thursday, September 26, 2013

The most money I've ever had

Since opening my Ally account earlier this year, most times I make a new deposit, it breaks a new record. It bumps up the amount of "most money I've ever had" to a new limit, if even for a short time. Right now, that Savings account sits at $4,656.83, which is the most amount of available cash I've ever had in my life. (Yeah, yeah, I know some can make that in a month or two, but cut me some slack).

Even though the number is relatively small, it still amazes me. I could say it 10 more times: it is indeed the most money I've had accessible to me at my age and it leaves me in awe and makes me all excited. (SAD!). But at the same time, it doesn't feel like real money, and the reason why is because most of those dollars have a permanent home/goal:
$2,500 Car fund
$1,000 EF
$700 Christmas fund
$400 vacation fund
$40 for car insurance (paid every 6mo)
$16.83 in interest gains.

It makes me sad that the account will be -$700 once Christmas is through, and the car insurance fund only gets up to $240 before getting reset back to $0 twice a year. The EF is supposed to be untouchable, and the vacation and car funds will probably be gone by the end of next year as they realize their purpose. Then the account will be quite lonely.

But still. The sense of security from having such an amount 'available' is worth making permanent. Not sure if that means an even bigger EF-only fund or an even longer term savings account (like house down payment), but it's definitely something worth exploring for next year's planning.

Tanner that's awesome! You are so close to $5K that's nothing to sneeze at. Just think about how most people live paycheck to paycheck... You have already exceeded the majority of American's savings account totals! Who cares how much you do or do not make in a month! Keep up the great work!

Great job :) You already have a larger emergency fund than I do. All this extra cash just means more choices for you to either pay down debt or invest. I would have to save for quite a long time before I'd have that much in savings.

I believe the most I ever had at any point is about $2300, which is currently back down at $1100 given the last couple of months. $1000 of that is my EF; so as far as I am concerned, you are doing awesome.

Another amazing point is that you are disciplined enough to divide it up, I couldn't do that.

One of my retirement accounts does have about $3700 in it but I don't think that counts in this situation cause it's not like I can go withdraw that money.